An Owl's Rise



When the light of the warp portal faded, Evelyn, Aralee, and Otis found themselves in an area that was completely unfamiliar.

It was similar to the checkpoints found throughout the maze, but far larger and containing several of the domain's terminals within it.

However, the most noticeable was at the northern end where a truly massive, leafless, and ungainly shaped tree that had motes of red lightning constantly flickering out of the multitude of cracks in its bark and dancing around it rested. Certainly, it was somewhat beautiful thanks to the red lightning, but the tree's overall presence was far more eerie and oppressive. 

'What the hell is that thing? Why is it here?' Evelyn thought her instincts telling her not to get anywhere near the tree. 

Despite it just laying unmoving at the northern end of the center of the maze, Evelyn was confident that it was not just for decoration and that getting too close to it would be deadly.

At the very least, it did not show any signs of hostility so long as they stood in the center of the maze and did not approach it.

"It looks like we are the first ones here. Unfortunately, the rest of our companions are still lost in the maze somewhere." Aralee said, being the first to scan over the entire area.

Following her sister, Evelyn took her eyes off of the deadly tree at the north of the giant room and looked around.

As she did, she noticed that there were three entrances and exits for the center of the maze. One situated in each of the cardinal directions except for north.

This gave them confirmation that there were ways through the maze to reach the center other than using the single-use warp pad that they had spent most of their tokens on.

"Aralee, the map." Evelyn said, suddenly realizing something important.

Eyes going wide, Aralee understood what her sister was getting at and quickly pulled out the magical map that depicted the massive maze.

Now that they had made it to the center of the maze it had updated with information pertaining to their new location within a half kilometer radius. Allowing them to check the relationship between where they had been before and where the center of the maze was.

"It looks like this is the closest that we managed to get to the center at any point. But we were still probably a couple of kilometers away." Aralee said, pointing out the nearest point ont eh map to the center.

Even after all their searching for several days, they had not gotten very close to reaching the center. Giving Evelyn more validation in her decision to use the warp pads to reach the elusive location.

"Here, give the map to me. I want to fly around the edge of the room and get more information the surrounding area." Evelyn said.

The central chamber was far larger than the radius of the map, but by flying around the edge they would be able to learn about the passages around it.

"That is a great idea." Aralee said, passing the map over to Evelyn. But before she let go, she nervously looked towards the monstrous tree.

"Don't worry, I won't go near that thing."

After receiving Evelyn's assurance, Aralee released the map.

Going around the perimeter of the giant room, Evelyn watched as the amp's information updated and showed the paths of the maze that came within range of the map's radius.

Evelyn stopped for a few moments once she had gone around a third of the perimeter and simply watched the paths that came near the center of the maze.

Before her eyes she watched the corridors change incredibly quickly. Showing her exactly why it was so difficult to reach the center of the maze without simply warping into it.

It was not long before Evelyn had made it most of the way around the room and was getting close to the leafless tree crackling with red lightning.

She was confident that approaching it too closely would lead to danger, but she was curious to see how it would appear on the map and moved within five hundred meters of it.

As she did, the tree that had remained still except for the red lightning dancing out of its cracked bark began to ever so slightly move.

Evelyn watched its limbs shift in her direction and the eight roots jammed into the ground began to lift up out of the ground.

Immediately Evelyn backed off, her heart beating heavily in her chest. She had been afraid that she was about to be attacked by whatever sort of monstrous creature this tree was, but once she had gotten further away from it settled back down into its resting position.

Nevertheless, her brash actions had netted her a bit of useful information.

On the map the tree appeared as a red dot, indicating that it was an enemy. But it also had a three-hundred-meter radius glowing white circle around it. Which Evelyn figured was probably the radius that it could attack within.

Another thing she noticed was that the tree was situated atop a warp pad. What it led to; she was unsure of. But it was clear that using the pad would mean defeating the tree.

When she returned to Aralee, the answer to this question became clear.

While Evelyn had been flying around the room, Aralee had activated the terminals around the area to find out what functions they had, but not a single one of them would allow them to ascend tot eh third level of the domain. Something that the Vestige of the Verdant Warlord had assured them was located at the center of the maze.

"I suppose that means that we cannot go any further. When I got closer to it, my instincts were telling me it was not something I could hope to fight. Even all six of us together would not be a match for it right now."